better not touch
by The Original Horcrux
Summary: It's better not to touch, because snakes attack, and when they attack they almost always kill. .:AU:.


**Authors Notes:** For the Big/Lil Sis competition in which I and my lil sis Liza must write the same pairing in different AU's. The pairing we chose was Bellatrix/Andromeda and this is an AU where Bellatrix and Andromeda aren't sisters.

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better not touch

Bellatrix Black fascinated her beyond the point of it being healthy. There wasn't a day that went by that Andromeda Tonks didn't look at the majestic girl with her curly black hair, colourless skin and haughty demeanour and wish that she was brave enough to approach the Slytherin and finally talk to her. She wished that she and her twin brother Ted hadn't been born into a muggle family so that Bellatrix wouldn't make snide comments about her in the hallways, sneer at her whenever she so much as glanced her way in class, and made sure to call her a filthy mudblood when she knew that she was within earshot. Andromeda knew that all of that should make her hate the black-haired girl but quite on the contrary, it just made her more alluring than ever.

She'd read about the Black family before coming to Hogwarts, they were mentioned in all of her textbooks as they were one of the most powerful Wizarding Families out there. They prided themselves on being pure and looked down on Half-Bloods and Muggleborns as though they were the scum of the Earth. At first it had bothered Andromeda that they looked at her and Ted like they were less than human, but now she was used to it, it was just a part of her daily life now.

She watches Bellatrix as she laughs her high, cruel cackle as she jokes with her friends, Avery, Lestrange and Malfoy. The laugh should unnerve her like it does to so many others, but it makes Andromeda shift uncomfortably as she thinks about how she could make Bellatrix Black make that noise in bed. But she knows that Bellatrix is off limits, because Bellatrix is from the house of Salazar Slytherin, cunning and sly, just like the snake that represented it, and she was from the house of Helga Hufflepuff and badgers and snakes just didn't mix.

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"Immature git," she mutters to herself as she walks away from Ted and his friends at the Three Broomsticks, "This is the last time I go anywhere with him."

She loves her brother but most of the time he's too caught up in being kind that he doesn't notice that she wants nothing more to be alone. He, she thinks, is a true Hufflepuff. Andromeda has trouble not snapping at most people on good days.

She freezes in her tracks as she hears that telltale, bone chilling laugh echoing from down the alleyway between the two shops on the high street. She pauses as she hears Bellatrix say something and hears Malfoy's drawl as he replies to whatever she'd asked him a few seconds previously.

She bites her lip, wanting to go down the alleyway and see what's going on down there. She heard Bellatrix laugh again, this time it was followed by Lestrange's low chuckle and a whoop from Avery. There is a scream and Andromeda jumps out of her skin. The scream is loud, painful and very close, almost as close as the laughs from Bellatrix and her Death Eater friends. It clicks and she moves quickly down the alleyway, hoping that whatever… whoever, they're torturing is keeping them occupied enough so that they don't hear her ragged breathing and heavy footsteps as she walks further and further away from the high street.

Her senses screamed at her to stop moving and run away, to run back to Ted and the safety of the Three Broomsticks. But she ignores them, moving closer and closer to the laughs and giggles of the four Slytherins that she could identify in a heartbeat.

"_Crucio_," She hears someone say and the screams start up again, ringing out in the silence around them. She reaches a bend in the alleyway and that's when she sees the black of Bellatrix's hair and a figure tied at the base of her feet, bruised and bloodied. You recognise her as Lily Evans from Gryffindor and you look away as Bellatrix raises her wand and screams the torture curse with glee. Lily screams again and Bellatrix cackles loudly. However, laugh was not loud enough to hide the whimper that Andromeda had let out as she watched Lily writhe and scream on the ground, struggling madly against her bindings.

They're on her in an instant and before she knows what's happening she's on the ground next to Lily, looking up at Bellatrix from the ground. Bellatrix sneers at her.

"Well, well, well, Andromeda Tonks," she spits out the word like it's a sour grape, "Don't you mudbloods know that its rude to eavesdrop?"

Andromeda looks up at her coolly, "Don't you purebloods know that you're not as superior as you think?" she says stubbornly, quirking an eyebrow at the woman above her. Bellatrix's smirk turns into a scowl faster than Andromeda can blink.

"Avery, Lestrange, Malfoy, get the Evans girl to the hospital wing, tell them that she tried to jump the fence around the Shrieking Shack but fell off when she got to the top. I'm going to deal with Miss Tonks by myself."

It amazes Andromeda how she manages to control the three of them as they all get up, pick up Lily and start back up the alleyway towards the castle.

Bellatrix waits until they're gone before she turns around and crouches down so that her face is inches from Andromeda, her teeth bared in a snarl.

"Now, Tonks, I'm going to teach you a lesson." Bellatrix says, "And you're going to remember this lesson for the rest of your life."

"What's the lesson?" Andromeda asks boldly, feeling slightly more confident than her body betrays.

"Remember who you serve, mudblood," she sneers, her lips just centimetres away from Andromeda's and Andromeda can't help herself; she leans up and closes the gap between their lips, Only managing to kiss Bellatrix for a few seconds before she was pushed away, her head smashing back into the pavement as Bellatrix looks down on her with an expression of disgust and hatred on her face.

"_Crucio_," she screams without any form of emotion other than hatred and Andromeda feels knives slashing at her flesh and claws tearing at her face. She feels fire licking her limbs and salt being poured in the wounds left by the knives. Stars pop in front of her eyes as she writhes and screams, wishing that the pain would stop. She can't see. She can't hear all she can feel is white hot pain coursing through her veins.

Surely, surely Bellatrix would pull the curse off of her by now, it was sport for her to watch someone in pain over and over again, to watch them beg for mercy between hits. But there was no relief; there was no stopping Bellatrix now.

In the moments where the pain tearing through her body dims, she sees that there is no Bellatrix in the alleyway anymore. She's gone and left Andromeda to die here. And Andromeda's world dims, she knows it would've been better if she didn't try to touch. Because after all, Snakes bite, and when they bite, they almost always kill.

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**AN:** **I don't actually know where any of that came from but they are words so I'm going with it. Hope it's not too shit. **

**For the **_**Big Sis/Lil Sis Competition Round 5 (Write an AU**_**): Prompts – insignificant, Helga Hufflepuff, colourless, Romance, the last time**

**The ASAWAU Competition: **_**Prompts – books, stars**_

**I'd love it if you could leave me a review**

**DFTBA,  
Best Wishes**

**Nayla xx**


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